Access to justice will be 'reserved for rich'

Louise Nousratpour, Equalities Reporter
Tuesday June 14, 2011
The Morning Star

Government plans to cut legal aid are unfair and could leave the poorest denied access to justice, a panel of trade unions and experts warned today.

The Commission of Inquiry into Legal Aid has urged ministers to maintain budget levels "at least at the level they are currently at" to ensure public accountability and fair access to justice.

"There can be no semblance of equality before the law when those who cannot afford to pay a lawyer privately go unrepresented or receive a worse kind representation than those who can," it argued.

The commissioners' report Unequal Before the Law? was published just before the government's announcement of its plans for change.

The panel included Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland, former Lib Dem MP Evan Harris and former canon of Westminster Abbey Reverend Professor Nicholas Sagovsky.

The panel highlighted the Ministry of Justice's own assessments, which found that cuts to legal aid could lead to increased costs for other departments, such as health, housing and education.

Figures supplied to the inquiry by Citizens Advice found that for every pound of legal aid spent on benefits advice, the state saves up to £8.80 and for every pound of legal aid spent on employment advice, the state saves up to £7.13.

"Cutting legal aid is a false economy," commissioners said.

"When coupled with the human cost to the vulnerable and socially excluded of reducing legal aid, these increased economic costs are unacceptable."

They quoted a man identified as AB, who said that his problems spiralled before his solicitor was able to help him achieve stability.

"My benefits stopped. That meant I could not afford to pay my rent and I was evicted ... I had to sleep on the streets ... I was attacked on quite a few occasions," AB said.

"I also became ill very quickly and eventually I ended up in hospital diagnosed with a long-term illness and severe depression."

The commission concluded that cutting the £2.2 billion-a-year legal aid budget by £350 million - at an expected cost of 500,000 instances of legal assistance and 45,000 representations every year - will hit the vulnerable and the poor the hardest.

A MoJ spokeswoman defended the proposals and insisted that the current system encouraged "lengthy and sometimes unnecessary court proceedings."